I feel like it’s snowing everywhere but Chicago. 
Snow would totally make my day right now. I mean, it’s almost Christmas and I barely have to wear a coat outside. It’s just ridiculous.
Had to take matters into my own hands. 
La Palm Gel II – “By The Bay” (No-chip gel polish)
w/ hand-painted snowflakes, gold & iridescent glitter
I really do love snow…. 
and I wanted to give my right hand some air time.
the only down side to this snow thing is that it is FREEZING outside….. and windy. The wind chill is killing me. And since they have cleared out a lot of the snow, now it’s just blah.
I couldn’t wait to get snow again…. like REAL snow…. so-I-can’t-drive-to-work snow; need snowplows and boots snow; may have to leave work early snow!!!
And even though they aren’t forecasting a blizzard or a very large accumulation…. I’m still crossing my freshly manicured fingers – well, nails – in the hopes of the forecast just being WRONG, and flakes blanketing this place into halting.
Snow is so calming to me. And at the same time, excites me. I might even like it more than sunny days…. but that race is definitely neck & neck.
There was obviously no question about what theme would cover my nails…. it was more a query of how the interpretation would play out….
I went with the typical, and with shimmery silver….. but I tried my first “gradient” and “sponging” manicure. There. will. be. repeats. TRUST. ME.
It turned out to be much easier than I expected and I love the look.
I used OPI “Moon Over Mumbai” as my base.
Then sponged on:
Color Club “Sheer Disguise”
OPI “What’s With The Cattitude”
Essie “Coat Azure”
China Glaze “Sky High-Top”
Sinful Colors “Midnight Blue”
I used a white nail art striper (and a silver glitter one to add to one snowflake on my ring fingernail) to create my snowflakes. White polish with a tiny dotting tool for random dots of snow falling, and Sinful Colors “Queen of Beauty” for some shimmer over the snowflakes.
Sounds like a lot, and I definitely didn’t need to use that many blues…but it was still faster than some of my “regular” manicures!!
When I saw the snowflakes “falling” on the main page of the blog site (yay!), I immediately got excited. I LOVE snow. Love is an understatement.
Now mind you, I’ve been practicing good snowflake designs for like two weeks. And still no presentable snowflakes in sight for my nailbeds. 😦
Now this one from cutepolish vids is adorable….
…. and though I love her designs, and I love using my dotting tool – it seemed too simplified for my lofty expectation of my artistic ATTEMPTS… As I still haven’t mastered even a “neat” snowflake.
then I found this snowflake tutorial. I liked. More dots, but it was a tiny bit more complicated.
I ended up with a sort of in-between snowflake from the two… and I could only withstand the painstaking task on the fingernails of my ring fingers…. this nail art is work! 
I used the appropriately named “Avalanche” for the base color, and white polish with a very skinny nail striping art brush for the snowflake. I used a glitter polish with a dotting tool for some sparkly spots. When it actually snows here in Chicago [I wish it would hurry up and snow!!], I’m doing a snowflake design – again. (does this one count?)
China Glaze “Avalanche”
Polish2Times 